Begin with looking at U-6 as the actual unemployment rate, combine that with the gradual increase in labor force participation rate since the 70s (as people are compelled to work in two-income households to survive, etc) which has been collapsing in spite of the pressure only increasing further (disability? people becoming too broken to work anymore?) and the decline of real wages in lower percentiles against inflation and productivity gains.

To people in the real world all this is simply lived experience rather than abstractions. It's tangibly, obviously real.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/01/charts-whats-the-real-unempl... http://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/